LITTLE ROCK — For children, the chief Halloween-night medical scare is tooth decay, from all the sugar. For adults, it's cholesterol jolts and sodium intake, from all the ham.
After-hours treats for adults - mostly in the guise of holidaytheme band bookings - crowd the central Arkansas entertainment calendar for Wednesday night, each with its own broadly macabre, spooooky-with-allthe-o's-you-can-eat bead on the wickedest night of the year.
Juanita's - 1300 Main St., Little Rock, (501) 372-1228 - will have you asking not death, where is thy sting, but death, where is thy "e," as the band Daath, with a self-described sound of "extreme metal with a purpose," takes the stage. Shedding a little, um, dark on the bill are the opening acts Fallen Empire and Epoch of Unlight. ($7; 9 p.m.)
If an evening of unlight sounds a little unfun, rest assured it'll have to be at least a little undark inside Cajun'sWharf - 2400 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, (501) 375-5351 - just so somebody can see properly to judge the Halloween Costume Contest. But then, never fear - or go ahead, do; it's a special occasion - afterward, DJ Chucky will tip the scales a little back toward the reason for the season, even if his takeon "Chucky" doesn't bear the slightest relation to that murderous little doll that a succession of foolish families kept on sticking in the toybox despite its plainly homicidal expression in all those Child's Play movies.
A costume and $3, as opposed to the full $5 cover for the demure and uninspired, will get you in the door of the White Water Tavern - 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock, (501) 375-8400 - but then, once inside, you get what you pay for. The Libras, a cover band who in the past have mounted lovely sets saluting Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Tom Petty, now turn their sights to a special bill titled "Guilty Pleasures: Songs You Love to Hate." (9 p.m.)
"I intend to bring a lot of Phil Collins," forebodes the Libras' Jason Weinheimer. "Us being a bad cover band, Billy Squire, I'm sure, will be touched upon.There's been a lot of Madonna talk."
And in what guilty pleasure might Weinheimer costume himself, if he could? "How about a plate of fried chicken and mac and cheese from Kitchen Express. Mmmm."
Speaking of guilty pleasures, besides pizza, Gusano's - 313 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, (501) 374-1441 - specializes in them. It is, after all, the bar that brought female mudwrestling to the River Market.The rapper 607, also known as Adrian Tillman, doesn't promise mud-wrestling, nor does he rule it out. He will say, "I got some special treats," as he prepares for his set at the bar that night, around 10 p.m. following Lucious Spiller.
He will also say exactly what he means with his show's theme, "Misfits in the Market": "I'm trying to take my dirty self and all my dirty friends and put them in the River Market, because that's where we don't normally go."
As a performer, 607 has a certain flair for the dramatic; he hardly needs the excuse of Halloween to appear on-stage, say, rigged in bondage gear. For his Wednesday show, "other people can dress up if they want, but me? I'm doing the show. I'm never gonna be dressed regular."
This got us thinking about how, once, on her talk show, Ellen DeGeneres asked Prince whether he owned a pair ofshorts, just because it was so hard to imagine him wearing a pair. So, we wondered, did the hard-edged 607 ever dress up for Halloween as anything, you know, cute?
"Man, we couldn't really afford no costumes," he said. "We might go to Wal-Mart and buy face paint - be a clown or a mime. But it was always just raggedy-ass."
Style, Pages 65 on 10/28/2007